‘Even if many [Indonesians] are maids and contract labourers, they are humans and should be treated with fairness and dignity,’ says Mr Zainal Abidin Mohd Zin, the Malaysian ambassador to Indonesia (Today, 11 September 2007).
This is clumsily (and not entirely accurately) paraphrased in the headline as:
Even maids, labourers deserve ‘our respect’
Even maids and labourers? As if it wasn’t insulting enough for them to have to be acknowledged as human! Imagine someone saying to you: ‘Even YOU are human, and deserve respect’. Even is a loaded word and should not be used lightly. On a similar note, I leave you with this Peanuts cartoon:
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